The reaction of the White House press corps was initially skeptical, with some questioning whether the President was just putting a spin on a failed policy. When questioned, President became irritated saying, "Well all you have to do is compare things in Iraq to righthere in America." The President went on to compare the murder rate in the US to the loss of American troops in Iraq saying "In the US of A there were more than 25,000 killings lastyear with some 9,000 of them committed by insurgents, I mean, by poor, long-suffering, 'undocumented' aliens. America looses far less troops than that in Iraq. In America, we have another 40 or 50 thousand die on our roads, half from drunk driving. In Iraq, nobody even drinks 'likker' [sic]." He continued, "In Iraq, the US government builds schools and hospitals for free. Here we make the states and localities crawl to the federal government to get anything. Now I ask you, where is it better and safer to live? Huh!?! Huh!?!?" the President challenged. The room fell silent, with some members of the press convinced, saying they would make plans to move to Iraq "where it is safer" to live. Other members of the press were thoughtful but remained unpersuaded in spite of the President's presentation, which was termed "interesting."